Infiltrator

'Dyson,' Jordan said precisely.

John smiled slightly. 'I admired your brother,' he said. 'He was a good man.'

'And thanks to your mother, now he's a dead man.'

John shook his head, then frowned at the pain.

'No. The SWAT team shot him. Mom never intended for anybody to die. He was too badly wounded to get out. Mom says he took the detonator and gave her a nod to go. Then he held on as long as he could before he let the place blow.'

John swallowed some more water. 'He was a brave man.'

Jordan felt the strength run out of him, as if someone had pulled a plug at the bottom of his spine. The SWAT team shot him. It was exactly what Tarissa had told him. Exactly. Except that she had gotten that information from the squad leader, while Connor here had gotten it from his mother. Two independent sources, he thought. It could well be… must be true. The thing about the detonator, though, that was new.

'You're telling me my brother committed suicide,' he said aloud. He shook his head with a knowing smile. 'That's not my brother. Miles wouldn't do that.'

John looked at him. 'It wasn't suicide. He was too badly wounded to make it; I told you that. He didn't kill himself, he sacrificed himself for his family and his

friends. He died trying to save the world.'

'That is insane,' Jordan said straightening. 'You are insane. You and your mother and her boyfriend kidnapped my brother and forced him to—'

'We didn't kidnap him—he led us to Cyberdyne. He willingly came with us, willingly showed us where things were, and he helped us set up the bomb.' John closed his eyes again. He seemed to be less nauseated with his eyes closed.

'Why?' Jordan asked simply. He raised one hand and let it drop. 'Why would he do that?'

'Because we had a Terminator with us who showed him some of its inner workings and he couldn't deny that proof,' John said wearily. 'Look, I know it sounds insane. Before I met a Terminator I thought my mother was crazy. But she's not. It's all true.' He opened his eyes and looked at Jordan. 'Call Tarissa,'

he said. 'Tell her you have John Connor in custody and he's asking her to tell you the truth.'

Jordan was silent for a moment, his mouth open.

'You want me to ask my brother's widow to back you up?' he said slowly.

'She'll confirm what I've told you,' John said with perfect confidence. 'She will.'

Jordan tightened his lips and looked away. She would, he well knew it. He thought of Tarissa's message: Remember what I told you. And here it was again.

'Shit!' he said. 'Shit!'

John shut his eyes against the pounding in his head.

'Believe it or not,' he said, 'I know how you feel.'

Dyson tightened his lips and glared at the kid. Then he dug into the bag and opening the aspirin bottle tapped out three tablets.

'Here,' he said. 'Knock yourself out.'

Then he got out and slammed the door behind him.

He walked back and forth for a while, calming himself and trying to decide what to do. The kid thought Serena meant him no good. Given the behavior of the three 'backups' that she'd sent with him, maybe he had a point.

But Serena denied it, seemed stunned when he told her about it, and there was nothing in her previous behavior to cause him to doubt her. Serena said she only wanted the boy at Cyberdyne to protect the people there. That seemed extremely believable to him. She said the three goons were strangers to her.

He stopped pacing. Getting beyond that was hard, maybe impossible. And in all fairness he had to give some credence now to the story that Tarissa had told him.

Shrapnel dropping out of skulls, men running forty miles an hour. Unbelievable as it was, here it was again from a different source. And what a different source, he thought. The maniac's own son.

He wondered briefly if Tarissa might have been hypnotized into believing this insanity. No. Even if she had, it wouldn't have lasted six years, he thought. Not the way he'd kept her picking at it. And Danny wasn't even supposed to have

known a lot of stuff that he… claimed to know.

Jordan ran his hand over his short-cropped hair. The more he tried to sort it out, the more tangled it became. He put his hands on his hips and considered his options.

Ralph, he thought. Ralph Ferri.

Ferri was a major in charge of base security. Serena had introduced them, very much as a matter of form, on his second day at Cyberdyne, and they had hit it off. Since there was something in Serena's manner that indicated she didn't want to encourage Ferri to take an interest in the complex under her care, Jordan had kept their friendship to himself.

Ralph's secretary patched him through with no difficulty.

'Hi Jordan,' the Major said. 'Wassup?'

Now that it was time to ask, Jordan choked. How the hell do I put this?

'Jordan?'

Oh, God. He rubbed his forehead. This was a mistake.

'Hello? Anybody there?'

'Hi, Ralph, sorry I, uh, dropped the phone.' Jordan rolled his eyes.

There was a minute pause before the Major said, 'Sooo, what's new?'

'I need a favor,' Jordan said. 'Uuuhhh. This is really awkward.'

'Is it going to cost me my career?' Ralph joked.

'I honestly don't know,' Dyson admitted. 'Let me outline my problem for you.'

He went on to describe the situation, the three goons, the wounded kid, his notorious mother, and Serena's plea to bring the boy to Cyberdyne. 'But I just…

can't trust her,' he admitted. 'I just can't do it.'

There was silence.

Then, his voice cautious, Ralph asked, 'So, what do you want from me?'

'I want to put him in the base hospital under military guard,' Jordan said.

'Aaawww, man!' Ferri was silent for a moment. Jordan could hear the rapid tapping of a pencil. 'Let me get this straight,' the Major said. 'You want me to put a wounded sixteen-year-old fugitive, that your boss has ordered you to bring directly to her, into the base hospital.'

'That's about the size of it,' Jordan confirmed.

'I can't do that! Ask me for something I can do, man, and it's yours. But not this!'

'I'm willing to bet that Tricker would clear it.' Actually, Jordan had no idea what Tricker would clear. He'd only met him once and hadn't seen him since.

But instinct told him that mentioning Tricker's name in connection with something this hinky might work. The man was the personification of powerful, well-connected hinkiness.

'I'm willing to bet Tricker would put my ass in a sling for doing it,' Ferri protested.

'No, he won't. Look, trust me on this man, it will be all right. I'm assistant head of security at Cyberdyne. Your department has been ordered to cooperate with Cyberdyne, right?'

'Right.'

'So just do what I'm asking—cooperate with me. Okay?' Jordan waited.

'Yeah, but, Jordan, you just told me that your boss ordered you to bring this kid directly to Cyberdyne. To their med facility. Isn't that right?'